Odd . . .
At the end of one of my classes today, we all started chatting about smoking- how bad it is for you in general, but also how hysterically funny it is that the government thinks that the carcinogens and highly addictive drugs found in cigarettes are safer for us than the mild mind-altering substances in marijuana. This was all quite the normal discussion, until one person piped up, "but aren't there gamma particles and radiation in smoke in general? The chemical process of making smoke creates radiation, right?"
Um. Um, um, um. I didn't mind at all spending fifteen minutes explaining that there is no such thing as a gamma particle, at least as it applies to radiation, that radiation can only be caused by radioactive materials and not the chemical reaction of combustion, explaining the difference between alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, and finally pointing out that while cigarettes are carcinogenic and awful for you, it's NOT because they're bombarding you with radiation but rather because the chemicals in them are carcinogenic and erode your DNA in other ways . . . I just found it disturbing not only that a college freshman believed all of that, but that his HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER had told it to him!
AAAHHHHH!!!
Maybe the teacher was trying to deter the kid from smoking. A noble goal. But still- AAAHHHHH!!
Um. Um, um, um. I didn't mind at all spending fifteen minutes explaining that there is no such thing as a gamma particle, at least as it applies to radiation, that radiation can only be caused by radioactive materials and not the chemical reaction of combustion, explaining the difference between alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, and finally pointing out that while cigarettes are carcinogenic and awful for you, it's NOT because they're bombarding you with radiation but rather because the chemicals in them are carcinogenic and erode your DNA in other ways . . . I just found it disturbing not only that a college freshman believed all of that, but that his HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER had told it to him!
AAAHHHHH!!!
Maybe the teacher was trying to deter the kid from smoking. A noble goal. But still- AAAHHHHH!!